Muslim Youth Raise Money for Charity in Washington

It was cool and unusually rainy Saturday in Washington, not the best day for an outdoor event, but that didn’t stop more than a dozen members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association from hosting a 5K run/walk to raise money for a local food bank and an international charity.

Most of the runners were dressed in long black sweatpants topped with blue T-shirts. A few brave souls wore shorts. Some topped their running clothes with rain ponchos and struggled to keep them from flapping in the breeze.

Some of the money the runners raised is going to the Capital Area Food Bank, which serves Washington and surrounding communities in Virginia and Maryland. The funds are for anyone who needs them, not just for Muslim communities.

“We want to give to our neighbors first,” said Haris Raja, national director for the event, known as Walk for Humanity USA. “We want to serve our local communities first and make an impact in America.”

Raja, a systems engineer with a degree from the University of Maryland, near Washington, said the news media and politicians sometimes saddle Muslim youth with a negative image. He said his group’s charity work is meant to show that young Muslims can be, and want to be, productive members of the community.

Haris Raja, national director for the event known as Walk for Humanity USA.

“We’re doing this in America to tell our fellow Americans that our religion is about helping humanity, our religion is about serving people,” he said. “The people who know us, and the people who know good Muslims, they will tell you that a blanket statement of saying Islam is bad or all Muslims are bad is not true.”